Throwaway account because I am terrified this could lead back to me. It’s taken me an incredibly long time to feel strong enough to type these words out. It’s been long enough and it’s time to put these words out in the universe, so I can release myself from this. For the sake of anonymity, names have been changed and locations will stay vague. Okay here we go.
I graduated high school when I was 17. It was 2010, California was just getting beyond its hyphy phase. I was heading off to go to college at arguably the best state school so needless to say I was feeling pretty proud of myself and felt really hopeful about the future. The thing was, I was heading there pretty much by myself. I knew maybe 2 people from my high school that were also heading there and they had completely different majors declared, so to me it felt like we’d just see each other when we’d see each other, no need to force a bond just because we were heading to the same campus.
Fast forward to dorm assignments, and coincidentally I was assigned in the same complex, as Kaya , a girl I went to high school with. I knew her better than the other dude that was attending this school, so i felt excited to at least be near somebody that I was familiar with. We were in the same type of social class in high school; smart, quiet, got along with everyone but didn’t stand out. I was always on the more introverted side of extroversion, but I always liked to meet and make new friends.
Cut to third quarter and Kaya and I have become super close. I was always a dedicated friend, and when you get right out of high school and you are separated from your original crew, you kind of latch on to the first person that makes you feel genuine friendship; we were that for each other, me and Kaya. We would go out to parties, study together in the library, go shopping together, and drive home together for holidays. for all intents and purposes you would assume we were a couple, except we were both so boy hungry, it was kind of hilarious. One of us was better at this than the other. I had a hard time doing any kind of hooking up on the first date other than making out; Kaya on the other hand did not. She enjoyed tasting the buffet, and boy were her options endless. She never thought she looked good enough but she really always had these boys throwing themselves at her.
Blah blah blah, okay now you have context. Fast forward again one year later, and Kaya and I are roommates with 2 other girls and we live off campus. I worked at summer camp as a counselor , so I hadn’t seen really seen anyone during the break other than my camp coworkers. While we were moving in to our new place, I felt like something was off. Maybe it was the feng shui of the building complex, but I didn’t feel comfortable there at all. But we each got our own rooms and we barely paid more than we did at the dorms, so it was a good deal.
The first night I slept there, I was woken up by the sound of the loud ass train blaring it’s horn right behind our apartment. While I was turning over trying to go back to sleep, I heard a weird noise. It sounded like a light tapping, a pitter pattering on the wall. My mattress was right up to the side, so I pressed my ear up to listen if it was a rodent. I heard it again, but this time it sounded more faint, like it moved to a different wall than mine. I made a mental note to mention it to my roommates the next day and went back to sleep.
I wish I could tell you that I got a good answer but I mentioned the tapping and nobody even batted an eye. I asked Kaya if she woke up from the train, since we both sleep facing the train tracks. She said she slept straight through it. Okay cool so I’m the only one having a hard time adjusting and I need just need to chill.
Friday nights became kind of a ritual of everyone putting on small dresses, pumps and a shitload of makeup and hair product. It must have been like watching that show Toddlers in Tiaras for all the adult neighbors that had to watch us walk up and down the neighborhood (this was before the days of Uber, okay). One friday, I was feeling sick and decided to skip going out. I was Skyping with a friend from back home when Kaya came home all of a sudden and ran upstairs to her room. It was like 10:00, she had barely been out for 45 minutes before she came back. Something was wrong.
I went to check on Kaya and she told me she was really stressed about a chemistry exam she had that was coming up and needed to study right then. It felt weird, since Kaya was poster girl for going out and going hard on the weekends. I asked if she felt sick too (maybe we both had the same cold)? She said she was going to take a shower, so I left and went back to keep Skyping my friend.
Cut to another 30 minutes and my other roommates come home since the bandleader Kaya is out for the count. Jenna and Patricia say a stumbling hi to me as I’m huddled downstairs by our internet router to get the best bandwidth for Skype. About 30 seconds go by and I am pierced by roommates screaming for me to run and get help.
Sorry getting yelled at by my boss, I will finish Part 2 later when I have time to type it all out.